Stopping pro-regime channels and punishing journalists for their opinions
London – August 9, 2017
July 2017 has witnessed severe violations against media freedom in Egypt, which confirmed the escalation of the ruling regime in its campaign against the freedom of the media and the press. The month has witnessed 41 violations, most notably the closure of several channels and programs for personalities traditionally known to support the current ruling regime since the July 3, 2013 coup. On top of these are Al-Hayah satellite channel owned by businessman Sayed Al-Badawi leader of Al-Wafd liberal political Party, Al-Nahar TV, LTC, as well as the Coptic Al-Hayat satellite channel.
The massacre affected pro-government well-known media professionals. The punishment was either to stop the program (temporarily) as happened with the media anchor Wael Al-Ebrashi or to open investigations with some, as happened with Mohamed Al-Gheiti, Said Hassassin and Reham Said.
July also has seen an incident in which journalists were forced to have unpaid leave or faced arbitrary dismissal in Youm7 newspaper because of the exercise of their right to express their views through their personal pages on Facebook, where the management of the newspaper confirmed that reason, even boasted it, which represents a professional scandal and illegal crime. And it is feared that some other media outlets may do the same in its blatant attitude towards the freedom of opinion and expression, which should be faced by all Egyptian journalists and their syndicate to prevent the spread of infection, respect for the constitution and laws and safeguard the right of journalists to express their views freely as journalists and media professionals are the are the leaders of society and they are its leaders of opinion. If they can not exercise their right to express their views freely, they will not be able to defend the right of the ordinary citizen to do so.
As for the rest of the violations, July has witnessed one case of arrest and enforced disappearance for some time. It has been related to writer and poet Khaled Said because of a poem that was considered offensive by the authorities. The month has witnessed two cases of release included Hazem Reda of Horriapost.net, and Abdo Desoqi of Ikhwanweb.com whose release was delayed for about a month after being acquitted in the case known as Rabaa chamber.
As for the violations in prisons, there have seen 6 cases on top of which as usual many cases that represent a tragedy within the prisons and almost repeated in all Ikshef monthly reports. They are the cases of Hisham Jaafar who is suffering from kidney pains, and the threat of kidney failure, as well as eye problems and vision; the case of journalist Ahmed Zahran, and complications of being shot in the head during his arrest, and the lack of health care; as well as Hamdi Mokhtar who suffer spinal disc herniation and not being transferred to the hospital.
The trials and complaints during the July amounted to 29 cases, 14 of which are cases that represent violations, while the rest are complaints and routine legal cases. The most notable of these cases was the reopening of the corruption file of the Al-Ahram Foundation, as counselor Nabil Sadeq the Attorney General ordered to refer 4 former chairmen of Al-Ahram, the state-owned newspaper, to trial. This is in addition to several other cases, whether to adjourn the sessions of journalists imprisoned, fines rulings or other cases and complaints.
July has witnessed 9 cases of prevention coverage, the most notable of which was the security forces prevention of a number of journalists from covering the meeting of foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt in Cairo to discuss the escalation measures against Qatar.
In addition to other cases of prevention in courts, government institutions, clubs and football fields.
There has been two cases of abuse that are recorded in July, which is the lowest rate during the past months. They are related to columnist Jamal Al-Jamel and journalist Mohammed Hassan of Al-Fagr newspaper.
In July, two writers were banned from writing: columnist Fahmi Huwaidi in Al-Shorouq newspaper and Sulaiman Al-Hakim in Al-Masry Al-Youm.
Two journalists were arbitrary dismissed in July. The first case was in Youm7 newspaper that include 3 journalists for political reasons, writing on personal pages on Facebook. The second was in Tahrir newspaper that include 3 journalists for due to disputes within the newspaper.
Updated list of detained journalists in Egypt till July 31, 2017 (96 Journalists):
1. Magdi Ahmed Hussein (Editor of Al-Shaab Al-Jadeed)
2. Hisham Jaafar (MADA)
3. Ismail Al-Iskandrani (Freelance journalist)
4. Mahmoud Hussain, Al-Jazeera news network
5. Reem Qotb Jabarah, independent film director
6. Mohammed Farag, freelance journalist
7. Nabil Al-Ashri, editor of Mubasher website
8. Mohammed Al-Shaer, of Mubasher website
9. Mohammed Salah Sharara, Qatari Al-Watan
10. Hamdi Al-Zaaem (Al-Hayat)
11. Mohammed Hassan (Al-Nabaa Al-Watani)
12. Osama Al-Beshbeshi (Baladi website)
13. Mohammed Haz (Freelance journalist)
14. Omar Adel (Zoom News website)
15. Mohammed Al-jenidi (Freelance journalist)
16. Hussein Abdul-Halim of Al-Dostor)
17. Hassan Al-Qabbani (Al-Karama newspaper)
18. Mohammed Saber Al-Batawi (Al-Akhbar)
19. Ibrahim Al-Dadrawi (Al-Qawmiya for distribution)
20. Mohsen Radi (Al-Daawa)
21. Said Abu Haj (Sinai Media Center)
22. Amr Al-Khafif (Former director of broadcast engineering in ERTU)
23. Emad Abu Zaid (Al-Ahram)
24. Mohammed Abossoul (Akhbar Al-Youm)
25. Abdo Desoqi (Ikhwanweb)
26. Mohammed Ibrahim Shukri (Al-Omma TV channel)
27. Walid Shalabi (Ikhwan Online)
28. Yusuf Talat (Al-Sabab TV channel)
29. Mahmoud Mostafa Saad (Alnahar newspaper)
30. Ammar Abdul Majid (Al-Hadath website)
31. Sabri Anwar (Elbadil newspaper)
32. Samhi Mostafa (Rassd network)
33. Ibrahim Suleiman (5thTV channel – National TV)
34. Omar Abdul-Maksoud (Masralarabia.com)
35. Mahmoud Abu Zeid, (aka Shawkan) (Demotix photo agency)
36. Bakri Abdul-Aal (Al-Raya newspaper)
37. Mohammed Al-Saeed Al-Dashti (Al-Mashhad newspaper)
38. Abdul-Rahman Shahin (Freedom and justice newspaper – Aljazeera TV channel)
39. Mohammed Salah Madani (Misr 25 TV channel)
40. Khaled Hamdi (Misr 25 TV channel)
41. Khaled Abdul-Aziz (Misr 25 TV channel)
42. Jamal Al-Alem (Misr 25 TV channel)
43. Osama Ezzuddin (Misr 25 TV channel)
44. Mohammad Al-Adli (Amjad TV channel)
45. Abdullah Al-Fakharani (Rassd network)
46. Moataz Mostafa Shahin (Freedom and Justice newspaper)
47. Mohamed Salah Sowaidan (Freelance photographer)
48. Mahmoud Abdul-Nabi Awwad (Rassd network)
49. Ibrahim Abdul-Nabi Awwad (Rassd network)
50. Khaled Abdul-Rauf Sahlob (Rassd network)
51. Khaled Hamza (Managing editor of IkhwanWeb)
52. Sayed Musa (Amjad TV channel)
53. Karim Mostafa Al-Sayed (Al-Shabab TV channel)
54. Mohammed Ezzat (Ikhwan Online)
55. Abdullah Shousha (Amjad TV channel)
56. Ahmed Lashin (Misr 25 TV channel)
57. Shadi Abdul-Hamid (Freelance correspondent)
58. Suhaib Saad Al-Haddad (Freelance correspondent, Aljazeera)
59. Khalid Mohammed Abdul-Rahman (Freelance correspondent, Aljazeera)
60. Wael Al-Heddini (Freelance correspondent)
61. Mohammed Maamoun Abu Shousha (Ahrar 25 TV channel)
62. Ibrahim Talha (Stringer for satellite TV channels)
63. Mahmoud Jamal Ali Othman (Stringer for satellite TV channels)
64. Mohyi Qasem Mohammed Abdul-Jawwad (Stringer for satellite TV channels)
65. Mohammed Mostafa Abdul-Nasser Abdul-Qadir (Stringer for satellite TV channels)
66. Ahmed Muharram Abdul-Salam (Stringer for satellite TV channels)
67. Ahmed Abdul-Monem Zahran (Al-Mukhtar Al-Islami magazine)
68. Sameh Mohammed Ahmed Bakri (Stringer for satellite TV channels)
69. Abdullah Jamal Moftah (Stringer for satellite TV channels)
70. Ammar Samir Abdul-Ghani Ahmad (Stringer for satellite TV channels)
71. Ahmed Khamis Mahmoud Kheder (Stringer for satellite TV channels)
72. Belal Abdullah Ahmad (Stringer for satellite TV channels)
73. Abdul-Rahman Hassan Abdul-Hafiz (Stringer for satellite TV channels)
74. Ahmed Khamis Anwar Abdul-Qawi (Stringer for satellite TV channels
75. Osama Hashem Mohammed Hashem (Stringer for satellite TV channels)
76. Mohamed Hossamuddin Abdul-Halim Al-Kafrawi (Stringer for satellite TV channels)
77. Omar Mohamed Mabrouk Al-Sawi (Stringer for satellite TV channels)
78. Ahmed Ali Ahmed Al-Najjar (Stringer for satellite TV channels)
79. Mohamed Ahmed Mohamed Shehata (Stringer for satellite TV channels)
80. Islam Gomaa (Misr 25 TV channel)
81. Ahmed Hamouda Al-Sakhawi (Misr newspaper)
82. Ahmed Al-Mansi (Shabab News website)
83. Mahmoud Abdul-Latif (Shabab News website)
84. Ibrahim Samir (Freelance correspondent)
85. Islam Al-Banna (Freelance correspondent)
86. Islam Atef (Al-Omma website)
87. Ahmed Abu Khabeer (Al-Omma website)
88. Ahmed Maher Ali (Freelance correspondent)
89. Assem Abdul-Fattah (Al-Omma website)
90. Omar Khedr (Rassd network)
91. Omar Mabrouk (Freelance journalist)
92. Mahmoud Yahia (Al-Omma TV channel)
93. Badr Mohammed Badr (Al-Osra Al-Arabiya)
94. Ahmed Nasser (Freelance journalist)
95. Sara Mahanna (Yanairgate.net)
96. Khaled Said, writer and poet
